Korean Adoptee Figure Skater Confirmed As A Victim Of The American Airlines Plane Crash

On January 29 (local time), a commercial airplane operated by PSA Airlines collided midair with a US Army helicopter near Washington DC, claiming the lives of 67 individuals on both carriers.

Among the victims of the crash was Spencer Lane, a 16-year-old figure skating prodigy from Rhode Island. He was adopted from Korea by his parents, Douglas and Christine Lane.

The teen athlete was on his way back home from a US Figure Skating national training camp in Wichita, Kansas. He was aboard the PSA Airlines flight with his mother, who also lost her life in the crash.

“He’s like…was a force of nature,” Douglas Lane said, recalling his son in an interview after it was confirmed that he and his mother were among the victims of the crash. According to him, Spencer didn’t start learning figure skating until just three years ago after watching Nathan Chen win a gold medal at the Olympics in 2022 and getting inspired. Within just three years, he qualified for the elite national training camp in Wichita. 

It was like, unheard of to do that. And it was just, like, just his drive and tenacity…It’s heartbreaking that…we’re not going to see that journey kind of go where we all thought it could go.

— Douglas Lane

Shortly before the plane took off, Spencer posted a photo taken from the inside of the aircraft on Instagram. In another post, he had expressed his joy at qualifying for the national camp since it was his longtime goal, calling the training an “amazing experience.”

According to the fire chief in Washington D.C., there are presumably no survivors of the crash, and authorities are conducting a recovery operation to retrieve the bodies from the crash site. Spencer Lane was one of the two young Korean-origin figure skaters who lost their lives in this accident, the second one being Jinna Han. You can read more about her here.